PS-Surveying English Literatures: The Location of Culture in English Popular Poetry and Song
Jordan Lee Schnee
Kommentar
In this class we will examine the relationship between poetry and song, challenging the traditional separation between “high” literature and popular or folk forms. We will analyze how poetic structures such as the ballad and sonnet tie to (contemporary) English musical practice, seeing how poetry and song function as both aesthetic artifacts and contested sites of cultural negotiation.
A central focus will be interrogating the cultural and power dynamics that shape the distinction between elite and vernacular forms. Drawing on Homi K. Bhabha’s The Location of Culture (1994), we will attend to the relationship between hegemonic “centers” like London and peripheral spaces, exploring how English artistic production is influenced by (neo)colonialism, cultural hybridity, and asymmetrical power structures.
Additional theoretical readings will come from Stephen Roud’s Folk Song in England (2017) and Dave Harker’s Fakesong (1994). Applying the theory to primary texts, we will critically examine the ethics of collecting, recording, and commodifying folk traditions, questioning the construction of “authenticity” in literary and musical spaces.
Schließen14 Termine
Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung